#AZERBAIJAN

Relations between the two neighbors have been fraught for nearly 40 years.

Kazakhstan has released a preliminary report on the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash that killed 38 in December, saying the aircraft’s main control systems failed about 30 minutes before it attempted an emergency landing.

Azerbaijan has halted gas deliveries to Serbia, cutting off a daily supply of 1.7 million cubic meters Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said on Saturday.

Vladimir Putin has apologized for the fatal Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash which occurred in Russia’s airspace on Wednesday.

38 were killed when Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8432 crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

Ukraine has agreed to transit Azerbaijani gas to Europe as a temporary measure after it ends a transit deal with Russia, even though it expects some Russian gas will be included in the volumes, the Ukrainska Pravda news outlet reported on Thursday.

Armenia and Azerbaijan on Thursday accused each other of derailing a meeting between their leaders that was to be mediated by the U.K.

Kyiv is engaged in talks to pipe natural gas from Azerbaijan to the European Union, with Ukraine aiming to solidify its role as a vital transit hub and bolster energy security for Western allies.

A diplomatic spat has erupted between Armenia and Belarus, which has led to ties being severed between the two over apparent arms supplies by Minsk to Armenia’s arch-rival, Azerbaijan.

Dozens were injured, and at least 60 people were detained during an anti-government protest in Yerevan, over territorial concessions to Azerbaijan.

Following the agreements established by expert teams from Armenia and Azerbaijan on Tuesday, the process of defining coordinates through on-site geodetic measurements along the border between the two countries has begun.

Nearly 2,000 Russian troops were deployed to the breakaway region in November 2020.

“We’re committed to further growing our support to Armenia’s democratic and economic resilience,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

The U.S. Secretary of State emphasized the importance of reducing tensions between the two countries.

Two of the assailants had been wounded when hand grenades they were carrying detonated and were rushed to hospital.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has warned that Armenia could be at risk of war with Azerbaijan if it does not reach an agreement with Baku regarding the return of certain strategic Azerbaijani territories that have been under Armenian control since the early 1990s.

Azerbaijani state television broadcast footage on Tuesday showing mechanical diggers destroying the building that once housed the parliament of the Armenian-majority breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia is ready to sign a peace agreement with Azerbaijan if Baku shows the same political will based on principles previously agreed upon by the two sides, and is keen to make progress on normalizing relations with Turkey, Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanyan said on Saturday.

Armenia has frozen its participation in the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) because the pact has failed the country, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview broadcast on Thursday.